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As a business, you do not have to stress about working with large data sets. There are more reliable methods of representing raw, complex data. So, what are data visualization tools?
Why should you consider using data visualization tools? We will take you through Google sheets and Excel tools to create visual data for your audience.
Do you want to know what the best part is? By the end of it, you will be creating graphical visuals for your organization.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
In this blog you will learn:
Before we look at what are data visualization tools, you need to understand what data visualization is. It is the process of organizing data in a way that can be easy to understand.
Therefore, data visualization tools help you in creating data that an average person can use. Examples of visualization tools are Excel and Google Sheets. With the tools, you can create charts, pie charts, histograms, and other graphs. Most companies and organizations are struggling with big data. The internet has a lot of raw data that needs a form of representation.
As with the advancement in technology, there is a growing need for data that is easy to use and understand. It also helps with decision-making. Let’s have a look at an example.
Steve, is the owner of a jeans company and is looking to revamp his business. He wants to understand his customers and market behavior. In addition, he wants to check customer complaints. Are they facing any problems?
Once he gathers all the data he needs, he has to analyze it. How will he do it? And this is where data analysis comes in. It is the process of cleaning, transforming, and modeling data to identify essential information for business decision-making.
Raw data in a spreadsheet is boring to read and use. Splitting this data into a table is easy to see but difficult to understand at first glance.
Unlike having few rows, tons of data can be tough to communicate to the audience. They might feel a loophole in your presentation. As the presenter, you may have a clear understanding of everything.
However, your audience may not have as much technical knowledge as you do. It can be hard to explain to them which areas are performing well and which ones do not. So, how do you counter this?
As earlier mentioned, we will be looking at Excel and Google Sheets. A spreadsheet is a file with rows and columns that allows you to sort, organize and arrange data. You can use it to calculate numerical data as well.
The reason why a spreadsheet is unique is its ability to calculate values using mathematical formulas and data in cells. For instance, you can use a spreadsheet to create an overview of your bank balance.
Excel is a spreadsheet program by Microsoft. Unlike using a Word Processor, Excel organizes data into rows and columns. Intersect between the two is referred to as a cell. It can contain values that range from numbers, text, numerical value, or formula.
With Microsoft Excel, you will organize, analyze data and carry out calculations. Some of the functionalities you can carry out with it are analyzing, generating pivot tables, and calculating statistics. In addition, you can represent your data as a chart or graph.
For instance, you can use the Excel spreadsheet to calculate a monthly budget, track expenses, and interactively sort data. Also, Excel allows you to customize it to your preference.
You can modify the rows, columns, and cells to have a background color, size, text format, font, layout, and number or date format.
Have you used Google Sheets before? It is a web-based platform provided by Google within the Google Drive application. The spreadsheet application is free to use.
It is worth noting that Google Sheets are mobile responsive. It is accessible as a desktop application on browsers like Chrome. As a mobile app, it is available for iOS, Windows, Blackberry, and Android. From the Google Drive service, you can access Google Docs, Slides, and Forms.
Users are free to create a personal or business account with Google Sheets. With it, you can edit, organize, and analyze various types of data. It allows collaboration and multiple users.
Several users can edit and format a file in real-time. In case of any changes, users can track them from the revision history.
First, you are free to create a spreadsheet on your desktop browser or download the mobile app. So, what are the features of Google Sheets?
As mentioned earlier, Google sheets allow multiple users to edit a spreadsheet in real-time. Instead of sending your emails to various people, users can make changes simultaneously.
For instance, if you are working as a team, you only need to adjust the settings and share the link with members. All the changes are saved on a Google server. From the history, it is possible to track any edits.
With Google Sheets, you do not have to be online to edit a document. Using a desktop or mobile device, you can access the spreadsheet and make changes when you are offline. Here is how to go about it:
If you are using a desktop – install the ‘Google Doc offline’ Chrome extension. Check the box to create and select edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides on this device while offline.
When using a mobile device, you will need to install a Google Sheets app that supports offline edits. Depending on your device, it should be compatible with Android and iOS devices.
The human brain processes visual data faster and with ease. For this reason, we need data visualization to represent data and identify trends and patterns that would be hard to notice in a spreadsheet.
Visualization helps us view crucial data that would go unnoticed. Let’s have a look at the visualization below. If you were to represent the data in a plain table, it would be easy to miss some details.
For instance, besides other details, you can check the conversions, clicks, and impressions of the PPC campaign. The blue line represents impressions, the grey line is for clicks, and the orange region represents conversions.
On 05/01, there were 0 conversions, 411 clicks, and 4,141 impressions. There was a change on 05/04- there were 7.74 conversions, 1,256 clicks, and 12,312 impressions. On 05/07, the conversion was at 9.71, 2,224 clicks, and 24,532 impressions.
With a good data visualization, you can research data and investigate the causes or effects in a specific relationship. From the example below, a presenter will want to know what accelerated the conversion growth on 05/14.
The reporter may be curious to find out that since 05/16, the conversions have been dropping with the drop in clicks and impressions.
As such, it may lead to questions like, why is there a drop? Why do the conversions start rising after several days? What are you doing right or wrong?
Now, this is where data visualization comes in. It gives answers much faster. For example, to answer a question like, ‘which day of the week has the lowest conversion rate?’
The information is easier to find out on a chart than reading and comparing rows and columns in a table or spreadsheet.
The illustration above shows how visualization can facilitate and help you read the tabular data. Some cases can be hard to make sense of without visualization. It is usually the case when working with large data sets.
Data visualization is applicable in all companies, businesses, or organizations. With a visualization tool, you can discover new patterns and trends. It also helps you to understand and fix issues.
Users are looking for data analysis tools. Visual analysis has grown in popularity in recent times. If you’re encountering a data set for the first time, you may need to conduct exploratory data analysis.
The goal is to discover patterns and associations from the data set. Some of the features of the data visualization tools are:
Not all data visualization tools require coding or programming skills. Coding, in this case, means switching back-and-forth between visual charts and code.
If you are starting, you do not need to worry about coding. Working with the GUI based-tools allows you to collaborate with most users.
With the visualization tools, you are free to create various visuals. Besides using statistical graphics, you have the ability to visualize hierarchies (treemap), financial reports (stock charts), geospatial maps, and Sankey charts.
Visuals help with data representation. You can customize them to represent your brand. Some of the customizable elements are labels, charts, fonts, and color.
With the default labels, you may need to resize or reposition them to be eligible. Also, the coloring scheme should be easy to adjust based on your preference. When it comes to colors, you can assign them based on category. But with heatmaps, you can allocate them based on value.
Sometimes as an organization, you do not want to repeat the design process of a visual element. Therefore, a data visualization tool should be easy to create a template.
For instance, if you design a chart and customize it with your preferred color and labeling scheme, you can save it as a template for future projects.
One of the tips is that you will be exploring data sets that have multiple rows and columns. ChartExpo is compatible with both Google Sheets and Excel.
It allows you to create custom and fully integrated charts with no coding. ChartExpo produces a quick summary for each variable and displays the results through a graphical user interface (GUI).
When working with a data set, there is a need to filter it depending on the category. For example, you can use checkboxes, dropdowns, or sliders to select a value.
Pivot tables help you summarize data, reorganize and find a pattern. If you are using Google Sheets, you can add them based on suggestions or create them manually.
Most business analysts use pivot tables, which offer tabular summarization methods in spreadsheets and reporting tools. However, visual pivoting is replacing tabular representation in charts.
Google Sheets has an easy-to-use interface. It has a visual analysis that has become a popular way of exploring data.
Most of the data visualization tools do not have analytic capabilities. Analytic tools can range from simple (error bar, quantiles) to advance (clustering, forecasting, multidimensional scaling). The analytics exceed what a user can do.
It is pretty easy to identify the purpose of the data visualization. It helps to make sense of data and use the information for the benefit of the organization.
Before visualization, raw data is complicated and hard to understand. It can be tough to communicate data findings faster. Also, it becomes tricky to identify patterns to draw insights and seamlessly interact with data.
Data scientists can find patterns and errors without using visualization. But, they will need to communicate the data results and identify critical information. Therefore, there is a need to use interactive data visualization tools.
Let’s draw an example from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. For data analysts, they can look into the data and gain insights even without visualization.
However, data visualization will help the expert be up-to-date when working with such a large volume of data. So, what is the purpose of using data visualization?
Wondering what are data visualization tools and their benefits? Since you already have the definition in mind, here are the advantages of using these tools.
Whether you are working with Google Sheets or Excel, you can use Google Sheets as an add-on or add-in. It has a charting library based on JavaScript.
ChartExpo has a variety of options to use for data visualization. Available output options include chart options and mapping capabilities. Designers and analysts can design color-coded maps for geographical data in a format that is easy to understand.
It is easy to use and suitable for someone who wants to create visual data in various settings. It has a gallery of infographics and a library of visualizations for people to use as inspiration when creating their own.
ChartExpo’s visualization library makes it easy to gain insights from a spreadsheet. Manual data analysis requires coding. Here’s how to install ChartExpo in Excel:
4. Check your add-in here – ChartExpo for Excel, or click on the Refresh button.
5. Select the add-in and click the Insert button.
After a successful add-in, this is what you expect to see on your screen:
-Log in with a Microsoft account or create a new account.
-Log in to start using the add-in.
After you log in for the first time, you do not do it again.
Click on Create.
You will see six different groups. Click on it to expand.
For instance, Simon runs a brand awareness campaign on various social media platforms. His customer demands a visual representation of the data. He gathers data traffic to the website. Simon intends to represent the data to show the achievements and possible improvements.
So, he decides to use a hierarchical Bar Chart. It is a type of chart in ChartExpo with a visual representation of bars in two hierarchies. The cyan bar represents the share percentage in all categories and blue bars as subcategories. Here’s how to handle this:
Open Excel and create categories. Create columns for social media platforms, browser, and traffic.
To draw the chart- open ChartExpo, click Insert, then ChartExpo for Excel, and finally click create chart.
Click on General, then select Hierarchical Bar Chart. Next, select update from sheet data.
Now we will see how you can you create visualization in Google sheet, so that you can share spreadsheets with other teammates.
To get started with ChartExpo add-on for Google Sheet ,click on the spreadsheet. From here:
Add-on:
2. Click Install.
For example, Samantha has an ad agency, and her client requested a comparison for the CPC and CTR of keywords in the campaign. She took out the data and created a Google Sheet.
She opens Google Sheets and creates a category for the keyword, CTR, and CPC. The dashboard should be easy to understand and show the information to measure.
To draw a chart- open ChartExpo ,click comparative Analysis charts, then Adjacent Bar Chart. Select the sheet name, next is Add New Metric and add the values. Click on Add new dimension and select a category with the Keyword dimension.
Finally, click on create chart.
Colors and labeling in the charts are self-explaining about the data. If you have good analytical mindset such visualization give you insights at first look. You can regularly visualize your marketing data and other data to bring improvement in your strategies and processes.
Are you searching for what are data visualization tools? There you have them. Data visualization helps in summarizing information to make it easy for individuals to identify patterns and trends.
You can tell the value of data from visualization. Its power relies on the ability to extract and shape a narrative. Charts and graphs communicate data findings easily. The human brain processes visuals much faster as compared to tables and rows of spreadsheets.
If you’re not using visualization, you have the tools to help you achieve the best visuals for your business.
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